Xerxes the Golden-Eyed
Note: The following article takes the claims of Old Gorri, and those of Xerxes the Golden-Eyed himself, as canonical truth. Both are Unreliable Narrators -- Old Gorri is the local drunk you meet in Mission Two, and Xerxes suffers from severe megalomania -- so it is possible that a more mundane explanation exists. The Historical Xerxes Xerxes was the king of a nation-state known as Persia, which existed on Old Earth before the First Digital Dark Age. The bulk of his career consisted of supressing rebellions and supervising grand construction projects, but he will forever be known to history as the man who failed to conquer Greece. In 465 B.C., at the age of approximately 55, Xerxes was assassinated by the captain of his palace guard, and succeeded by his son. His tomb is now empty, believed to have been looted by the armies of Alexander the Great over a hundred years later. The Rise of the Golden-Eyed In fact, Xerxes did not die, but was rescued by the time-travelling Forerunner Drochah. Drochah, of course, had an ulterior motive: Xerxes was trained as a squadron commander in Drochah's army, the "League of Ages", along with history's other great dictators. When the League was defeated, its surviving commanders scattered; Xerxes went into hiding on Tyndahl, a remote ferrite-mining colony of just over 100 people, ruled by Clan Ryk-hal. Proclaiming himself the new planetary lord, Xerxes incited a revolt on Tyndahl, and all of the Ryk-hal were murdered in a single night. Several of his rebels were given the title of "general" -- in effect, squadron commander -- along with the extensive collection of Mecha collected by the Ryk-hal during their tenure. The rest resumed their lives as slave-miners, with corporal punishment (including executions) used to discourage a second coup against Xerxes himself. As a king of Old Earth, he had more experience with the fine points of administration than does the average Clan warlord. Within the space of a year, Tyndahl's mining output had expanded tremendously, by importing slaves and prisoners from elsewhere in the Galaxy. His army also grew in size, swelled by professional assassins and mercenary Mecha pilots. Xerxes also invested in cybernetic prostheses, both practical and cosmetic, including a pair of gold-plated optical sensors to replace his own eyes. His particular fondness for these devices eventually led to his followers calling him by the honorific title, "The Golden-Eyed God". Hubris and Retribution At some point, Xerxes began to take this title literally. Though pious in his life on Old Earth, vanity had always been one of his flaws, and he now openly proclaimed his divinity...whether or not he believed in it himself. In 3293, Xerxes came out of hiding to raid the neighboring star systems. By the standards of modern warfare -- if not those of ancient Old Earth -- these battles were considered particularly brutal, often targeting population centers, and killing children and other non-combatants. His domestic policy became increasingly focused on terror: rumors circulated that he campaigned in a tent made of human skin, and that he entertained himself by decapitating randomly chosen slaves. Even the recruitment of new mercenaries took on a decidedly carrot-and-stick aspect, as with the recorded conversations shown here. Inevitably, Xerxes declared a holy war against all those who did not acknowledge him as a god. While he had several thousand Mecha pilots on his side, he was still outnumbered by the Clans, who annihilated his squadrons through sheer attrition. Xerxes, who insisted on leading his army in person, was killed in the final battle on Tyndahl. The triumph of the Clans was popularly seen as a victory of liberty over tyranny, rather than an example of a tyrant fortunately ignoring Rules 39 and 61. Additional Documentation Old Gorri's introduction: You’re drinking at the Lusty Frigis when Old Gorri jerks his head up from his table in the corner. He blurts out of nowhere, "The Golden-eyed God sees all!" and promptly passes back out. You 86 Old Gorri and the barkeep rewards you for your efforts. Old Gorri's tale: Come here, youngster, and let Old Gorri tell you the tale of how Xerxes the Great came into power. Pretty soon it’ll be all over the galaxy, and you can tell ‘em you heard it first from me. You see, Xerxes was an ancient Persian King, plucked out of time by the forerunner Drochah and trained in the art of Mecha combat. When the collective clans turned their might against Drochah, Xerxes barely survived the great raid. He managed to get away as the tide was turning against Drochah’s League of Ages and get off planet in order to regroup and heal up. He spent some time on Tyndahl, a tiny Ferrite mining planet whose inhabitants, the Ryk-hal Clan, were lording over a hundred or so slaves to work the mines and pleasure their masters. Xerxes took advantage of the situation and led a slave revolt, overthrowing the Ryk-hal scum in one night. He had their throats cut while they slept. The act would have been almost heroic, except that Xerxes intended to simply replace the Ryk-hal as slavemaster. He hand-picked the strongest of them to serve as his generals, and the rest were put back to work in the Ferrite mines. He beat them mercilessly to remind them that they were his now, and he killed off those who seemed foolhardy enough to mount any resistance. Xerxes had begun his slow rise to power. He had sustained some serious wounds in the battle with Drochah, including the loss of his left arm, but now that he had built some wealth and power, he had the arm replaced with a cybernetic prosthetic. As time went on, he found that he quite enjoyed the strength of his new limb, and began seeking out other cybernetic augmentations--some functional and others ornamental. He claimed that the additions of these mechanized components to his physiology were bringing him closer and closer to godhood. The process culminated in the addition of orb-shaped golden sensors to replace his eyes, hardwired into his brain and reporting with lightning-quick accuracy everything around him. His slaves and his generals began to refer to him as the Golden-eyed God, believing him to be immortal and all-seeing. Word spread from colony to colony of the god that walked among them, a living mecha, thousands of years old and unkillable. Profits from the mining operation on Tyndahl, a robust slave trade, and an ever-growing business in paid assassinations provided Xerxes the capital necessary to build an army of mecha, and there was no shortage of pilots whose minds were weak-willed enough to believe in his divinity. His trained assassins were trained in mechanized warfare as well, and they came to lead his troops with deadly efficiency. His troops conducted brutal raids of neighboring systems and at Xerxes’ command, slaughtered everyone--women and children alike--before leaving the planet in ruins. Back on Tyndahl, the more viciously Xerxes treated his subjects, the more his reputation--and army--grew. He flayed subjects alive and had their skins stretched to fashion a tent to keep him out of the sun. He held a lottery for weekly beheadings of slaves. His cruelty became legend, and legend grew into myth. Pilots began to join him out of fear that his domination of the galaxy was inevitable, that he really was the deity everyone claimed him to be. Whether or not he truly was a Golden-eyed God, Xerxes was ready to make his move for total domination of the galaxy, and obliterate anyone who got in his way. A "taunt" screen that appeared periodically in the weeks before the Xerxes raid: Hey pal, this is JordieO’Shaugnessy. Just wanted to give you a heads up, there’s talk all over the pilot channels that there’s an army amassing. Bigger’n anything you’ve ever seen. Pilots all over the galaxy are lining up behind this guy they say is a god--Xerxes the Great, they call him. Say he’s part man, part machine. And they say he’s thousands of years old, that he’s immortal. I don’t know about any of that, but I do know a battle’s coming, and I don’t want to be on the wrong side of it when it gets here. Figured I’d clue you in, because I know you’ve got a reputation for being a tough S.O.B. When the missiles start flying, I’m hoping we’ll be on the same side. Make sure you make the right choice. This guy Xerxes is more than just big talk--he’s got the tonnage to back it up. One way or the other, I’ll see you when it all goes down. The "victory" screen after completing the Xerxes raid: The smoke begins to clear and you scan the battlefield, signaling to your clan mates that the war has been won. '' ''The smell of scorched earth and metal fill your nose as you exit your mecha to get a closer look at Xerxes, the “immortal” one who wreaked so much havoc on the galaxy. You verify the kill. The Golden-eyed God was not so immortal after all. Many died in this great battle, but you live to tell the tale. After scouring through the remains of the downed mecha, you’ll celebrate this victory by raising a cup to those who had the metal to stand up to this fearsome enemy, and not bow down to vicious dictators. So perhaps there will be no league of slaves worshipping at your feet, but at least you’ll know you serve nobody but yourself. You’ll sleep well tonight. Category:Pilots Category:Lore